MIND - SPIRIT

The term mind is used to represent the
activating agent of spirit, supplying its creative energy. When the term
is capitalized it refers to God or Christ (i.e. the Mind of God or the Mind of
Christ). Spirit is the Thought of God which He created like Himself.
The unified spirit is God's one Son, or Christ.

In this world, because the mind is split, the Sons of God appear to be separate.
Nor do their minds seem to be joined. In this illusory state, the concept
of an "individual mind" seems to be meaningful. It is therefore
described in the course as if it has two parts; spirit and ego.

Spirit is the part that is still in contact with God through the Holy Spirit,
Who abides in this part but sees the other part as well. The term
"soul" is not used except in direct biblical quotations because of its
highly controversial nature. It would, however, be an equivalent of
"spirit," with the understanding that, being of God, it is eternal and
was never born.

The other part of the mind is entirely illusory and makes only illusions.
Spirit retains the potential for creating, but its Will, which is God's, seems
to be imprisoned while the mind is not unified. Creation continues
unabated because that is the Will of God. This Will is always unified and
therefore has no meaning in this world. It has no opposite and no degrees.

The mind can be right or wrong, depending on the voice to which it listens.
Right-mindedness listens to the Holy Spirit, forgives the world, and through
Christ's vision sees the real world in its place. This is the final
vision, the last perception, the condition in which God takes the final step
Himself. Here time and illusions end together.

Wrong-mindedness listens to the ego and makes illusions; perceiving sin and
justifying anger, and seeing guilt, disease and death as real. Both this
world and the real world are illusions because right-mindedness merely
overlooks, or forgives, what never happened. Therefore it is not the
One-mindedness of the Christ Mind, Whose Will is One with God's.

In this world the only remaining freedom is the freedom of choice; always
between two choices or two voices. Will is not involved in perception at
any level, and has nothing to do with choice. Consciousness is the
receptive mechanism, receiving messages from above or below; from the Holy
Spirit or the ego. Consciousness has levels and awareness can shift quite
dramatically, but it cannot transcend the perceptual realm. At its highest
it becomes aware of the real world, and can be trained to do so increasingly.
Yet the very fact that it has levels and can be trained demonstrates that it
cannot reach knowledge.